West Virginia point guard a focus for Plumley

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, March 21, 2010

Quickly correcting her head coach, West Virginia women's basketball player Sarah Miles pointed out that breakfast tacos are the food she misses most from her home state of Texas.

"They have those at McDonalds," West Virginia coach Mike Carey innocently said. To which Miles replied, "Those are burritos. It's completely different."

To the uninitiated, the difference between a taco and a burrito might be like determining the correct pronunciation of tomato -- is it to-MAY-toe or to-MAH-toe? Regardless, Miles fits right in with this Mountaineer team, even if she is more than 1,400 miles from home.

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A San Antonio native, Miles is a point guard and defensive stopper for a nationally-ranked team that will face Lamar University and its own dynamic point guard, Jenna Plumley, in a first-round NCAA tournament game tonight at the Erwin Center in Austin.

For Miles, the game is the closest thing she's had to a homecoming in her two-plus seasons of playing college basketball. She expects roughly 25 friends and family members to be in the stands tonight. Among them will her mother and a grandmother, neither of whom have seen her play a college game.

"I'm excited, but I'm trying to stay focused and continue to stay focused on what I'm here for, which is the game," Miles said. "I'd rather just go into this game thinking like any other game regardless of the location and regardless of who's going to be in the stands. Whoever's is in the crowd is not going to be my focus. The focus is going to be our team and the game and the win. I'm just going to try to stay as focused as possible on the game."

The matchup between Miles and Plumley will be among the more intriguing in tonight's game. The 5-foot-7 Miles is the Big East Conference's defensive player of the year. The Mountaineers' scoring defense of 51.8 points per game ranked fourth nationally before tournament play began Saturday, and Miles' 2.8 steals per game ranked 25th.

Plumley, the player on either team with the most NCAA tournament experience from her time at the University of Oklahoma, credits Miles for her court vision and foot quickness. Much like how LU head coach Larry Tidwell considers Plumley the "straw that stirs the drink," Plumley identifies Miles as the player who can most shake up things.

"She's very quick," Plumley said. "On film we watch her, and (she's like) our practice players. She kind of mimics some of the guys with her speed. That's one of the things I really picked up."

Plumley, a 5-4 junior, ranks in the top 10 nationally in 3-pointers (3.2 per game) and assists (6.7 per game). Lamar's 75.9 points per game ranks 15th nationally, but the Lady Cards have played few teams that defend as well as West Virginia, which primarily plays an aggressive man-to-man defense that is sparked by Miles.

"She has great quickness, very active defensively," said Carey, whose team is ranked 10th in both major national polls and seeded third in the tournament's Memphis Regional. "That sets the tone for us, gives us an opportunity to get up in the lanes and really do a lot of pressure defense because of her. Needless to say, on our break, she does a great job of pushing the break and finding the open man and getting us in our offense."

For Miles, this game against No. 14 Lamar may be the first of several near her home in the coming weeks, she hopes. Tonight's winner will play again Tuesday in Austin, against either the No. 6 seed University of Texas or No. 11 San Diego State University. Whichever team survives those games must win twice next week in Memphis to earn a Final Four spot in Miles' hometown of San Antonio.

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For now, Miles' coach will work on keeping her calm for tonight's affair.

"I'm sure she'll be a little nervous, come out and try to do a little too much in the beginning, but she'll be fine," he said. "She'll be fine."